Skip to main content

Filling in the Knitting Blanks

I've been doing some knitting, but haven't been too diligent about keeping the blog updated, so here goes.  It seems a little frivolous to babble about knitting when so many people have been devastated in Japan, so I'll pass on a small way to help that I learned about this morning.  I went online to the Red Cross to donate and after I did that, I visited my forums on Ravelry.  Little Knits is a yarn shop in Seattle with a large online business.  There was a thread in the group today regarding Japan, so I read it.  The owner of Little Knits announced that she would match donations for people who had no corporate matches and donate up to $10,000.  So I emailed the Red Cross with the matching information and also advised Little Knits so my donation amount could be double checked.  I know there are lots of worthy organizations to which to donate, but the Red Cross is a great one and doubling my money was a welcome opportunity.

So back to knitting.  When last we visited, I was hoping to finish my Geodesic Cardigan.  I did get it finished; there were a few issues but luckily the "problem" areas are hidden from general view, and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.  Here's my "set the camera up and run in front of it" photo.



The sock that used to be a mitten is coming along finally.  I'm making the Vellamo Socks (Ravelry link) and they're a nice combination of colorwork and stripes.  The first sock isn't perfect; this is my first attempt at a short row heel and I also haven't made a striped sock before (without using self-striping yarn.)  I've successfully avoided the jog in the stripes, but am having a little trouble where I carry one color up behind the other.  I'm using this first sock as an experiment and hopefully will hit on a successful technique to use for the second.



I finished spinning the nummanumma fiber and am pretty happy with the way it came out.  I think it's about 500 yards and looks like I got a pretty good continuum of color.  I'm thinking about what small shawl will be best for it.



A bit of startitis has happened.  In addition to the sock, I've started a sweater and a shawl.  I spun some BFL/Silk last summer and intended to use it all along for the Tappan Zee cardigan.  I carefully three plyed the yarn to avoid striping but the way the two braids were dyed resulted in yarn that differed quite a bit in color.  So I decided to alternate skeins to mix up the colors, which of course makes it look stripey, but I'm going to knit for awhile and see how I like it.



I bought some Madelinetosh Pashmina with a gift certificate I had to The Loopy Ewe courtesy of my friend Goatlady.  For some reason I really wanted to start a project with this yarn and picked the Cedar Leaf Shawlette.  I'm enjoying working with the yarn a lot; it's really soft and pretty.  This pattern is using the dreaded wrap and turn short rows, though, and I think I've been doing them incorrectly.  I'm hoping that when I pick up the wraps it will all work out.  It's always something!



Tomorrow I'm off to Vegas with the Princess.  She's been here for a few days and I'm going back with her to see her doctor.  She's still having problems; we're hoping to get a handle on it this time.

One last thing - this morning I went out of the gate and saw the coolest flower on a vine growing up the wall outside out courtyard.  I have no idea what this it (anyone know?) but I was fascinated.



 


 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Can't Stand It Anymore

Those who know me accept the fact that I am an English major at heart, if not in real life.  I can spot a typo at 50 paces and a misplaced apostrophe at 100.  I have much more respect for writers (even bloggers and people who post in forums on the net) if they use apostrophes correctly and spell accurately.  In reading one of my favorite knitting blogs just now, I was disappointed in the author (who I enjoy and generally think does a great job of keeping her grammar and spelling top notch) when she made the mistake that I seem to notice constantly lately.  (No, family, it's not putting "at" at the end of a sentence, but that annoys me, too.) Lose vs. loose.  What is so hard about this?  Loose is when your pants are too big and fall down.  Lose is what you've done when you can't find your car keys.  You don't loose weight, you lose it (if you're lucky.) The sweater you knit is not too lose, it's too loose (assuming it's size is too large for you....

Catching Up

It's been awhile since I've posted any knitting, but I have finished a few things. Let's see, I got it into my head that I had to finish my Cozy wrap before our trip to Ireland, so I could take it on the plane as a blankie. Well, I knitted and knitted, so much so that my elbow began to hurt (ack!) but didn't finish. I decided to take it with me as airplane knitting, even though the larger, sharper Harmony needles I was using could perhaps be a problem, but they sailed through security screening each time. (I love these needles by the way, in all sizes. I haven't had any problems with them at all.) So Cozy came with me, sat on my lap, and I finally finished it halfway through the trip. Then I decided that it wasn't long enough, so I packed it into my suitcase and planned to block it out larger after returning home. Well, I blocked it and now it's really long, but I still like it and use it to throw over my shoulders as I sit and knit at home. Here...

Part Three - The Travel Part

In addition to having to get our acts together to leave town with little notice, we found an opportunity to rent our condo for a couple of months during our absence.  This meant that we would need to reorganize and move a lot of the stuff we've been leaving there out of closets and cupboards so renters will have space for their stuff.  Scrambling commenced and we got windows washed, carpet cleaned, closets emptied, garage tidied, and new dining table finished and set up (and old one gone.)  We also had to pack up the stuff we wanted to take home with us (the car might never have been so full and heavy.)  Pat had his final dialysis in the desert early on Friday morning, I went to my final exercise class and we were ready to leave a little after noon.  It was actually a bit rainy, so there were rainbows galore that morning. Our original plan was always to drive to Vegas this weekend to attend the UNLV graduation.  Our SIL, Mike, graduated with a degree ...